Lateral restraining a wall

[patrocks]

Hello,
I have a house that has suffered movement. This is believed to be long standing and non-progressive however to improve the structural stability the report recommended;

• Inspect the cavity wall ties.
• Strap the side elevation wall to the first floor timber joists at 0.8m centres maximum, or provide helical threaded bars which would achieve the same objective.
• Attach the side elevation wall to the internal cross wall by the introduction of right angled “Bat” straps with 600mm legs, which should be installed at 600mm centres vertically above and below the first floor level.

The side elevation is having the internal plaster removed (due to cracking) and the floorboards will be coming up (need levelling) so access should not be a major issue. Am I wrong to think this is a job a diyer can complete and if so could someone please give me advice to help me do it right.

I have found this on another thread, "Fit 30x5 restraint straps notched over 3 joists with noggins half the depth of joists below straps. Straps max 0.8m centres". Is this what I would need to do to strap the wall to the joists?
How would I fix the straps to the walls, I see examples where this is done between the leafs, not sure if this is for new build only??

I can’t seem to find any right angled straps with 2 No. 600mm legs. Can someone point me towards a suitable part please?

If I do this myself I intend to bring the structural engineer in to inspect the work.

Thank you for reading and I hope this makes sense. All help is definitely appreciated. Thank you.

Pat.

 

[themiddleagedun]

The straps to give lateral restraint are usually built in as work progresses, as you say. I've seen the straps (with the L cut off) resined in to a slot, that's been drilled out of the brick, then fastened to the top of the joists.

Other options are plugging & screwing them to the wall, or removing a brick & hook them into the cavity. What does the engineer say?

You'd have to make your owm 600x600 straps. Just get 1200 ones (the L is part of the 1200) and bend them.

 

[patrocks]

Unfortunately the engineer is on holiday until the end of the week and I was hoping to get this done next week to be inspected the week after.

A week isn't so bad but the day the engineer comes back from his holiday my builder goes skiing for a week!

Has anybody got any thoughts on helical bar systems? I was steering away from this method as I don't fancy working off ladders. Can this be done from inside do you know?

Thanks for the reply

Pat.

 

[tony1851]

Middleagedun has it right. The 30x6 strips with short bend at the end are probably the easiest. Because they are intended for building-in, you could do with spacing them more closely, as their strength will only be as good as your screw-fixings into the wall.
For the 600x600 straps, yes, get 1200 ones and bend them. A problem is that you will end up with quite a large radius to the bend, which will be awkward to
fit into a corner without protruding. When I've done this, I've saw-cut partly through the strap, then bent it to 90 deg, and then welded the opened-up gap on the outside. But of course for this you need a vice and welder.

 

[patrocks]

Thanks for the replies. I think I will end up sitting on this until the structural engineer comes back to be safe.

As I while the week away and ponder the way forward can anyone offer their opinion on the Thor helical bar system, also sold under the Twistfix brand.

Thanks.